On The Road With Al and Ivy: Blog

Update on Podcast: Changing back to the original blog format There's one more change to the podcast format, which is in many of the descriptions of the show, the old title of the blog is going to be used again. It will read "On The Road With Al & Ivy: A Literary Homeless Chronicle." The reason is that it will allow me to incorporate material from my ebook and past blog entries that relate to homelessness. In other words, the podcast is simply going back to the old blog format that started in 2016 which covered literary and cultural issues occasionally from a homeless point of view. I may sound naive or clueless when I say that the main reason I had moved to a more literary format was that I actually thought the homeless issue was going to either go away or be reduced by the influx of help and money that was occurring even back in 2016.  There have been huge sums of money spent and the creation of many local and government services, yet the problem has been getting wor...

SEPT. 2023 ISSUE: How Will A.I. Change Art? Part 1-3 Preview: Second Edition of "Knee Deep In Glory" Preview: On The Road With Al & Ivy: The Journal Entries (2016-2018) Note: This series is published as The Space Age Oracle on X Part 1: How Will A.I. Change Art? The legal battles raging between Hollywood and upper-level writers and artists are a different battle than what you and I are probably concerned with. Whether or not they get compensation isn't going to benefit most of the artistic community selling stuff on Etsy or eBay, indie music, etc. For example, do you want a new front room? Don't hire a designer; have the A.I. program give you hundreds of ideas within the budget and where to get the items (or even order for you). Are you a young filmmaker who needs a soundtrack? Just feed the program your script (written by A.I.) and have it create the perfect music. Now the Talking Heads of Tech will thump their chests and proclaim that the software will have pro...

- How Will A.I. Really Change Art? Part One - At The Movies: Cromwell (1970) And The Nature Of Violent Revolutions -  How To Find The Perfect Headphones - Part 1 -  The National instrument of Madagascar  How Will A.I. Really Change Art? Part One Note: This was hoping to be another Vella nonfiction book but I decided to run a few of the pieces here then continue it in the Subscriber section. The legal battles raging between Hollywood and upper-level writers and artists are a different battle than what you and I are probably concerned with.  Whether or not they get compensation isn't going to benefit most of the artistic community selling stuff on Etsy or eBay, indie music, etc. For example, do you want a new front room? Don't hire a designer; have the A.I. program give you hundreds of ideas within the budget and where to get the items (or even order for you). Are you a young filmmaker who needs a soundtrack? Just feed the program your script (written by A.I.) and have...

He traverses familiar,  As one should come to town  And tell you all your dreams were true;  He lived where dreams were sown. - Emily Dickinson  "Do you suppose I give a damn about life now? Why, you bone-head, I haven't got a single damned lying hope or pipe dream left!" "By God, there's no hope! I'll never be a success in the grandstand--or anywhere else! Life is too much for me! I'll be a weak fool looking with pity at the two sides of everything till the day I die!" - Eugene O'Neill (The Iceman Cometh)  I've first saw O'Neill's play, "The Iceman Cometh" in high school. My English & Literature class watched the movie version that starred Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan on PBS. I won't go into all of the deep meaning, as there's cliff notes and Google for that, but what seems relevant today was the importance of dreams, which are part of a reality, even if delusional. The play'...